Unif-100 - Shallot Beef Flavor Noodles

Even though I've been previously burned by President Unif-100 noodles, I managed to forgive them for that travesty. After all, it's very difficult to pull off a Shrimp flavor that doesn't taste like aquarium water. Shallot beef flavor, on the other hand, should be a much easier flavor to design. Just add some salt and beef flavoring and you're set.

No real surprises with this ramen. It's a little bit spicy to cover the fact that there isn't much flavor there besides salt. The flavor packets consist of a powder packet, a packet of scallions and cabbage, and a flavored oil packet.


Overall, this was a decent soup but I prefer the competitors such as Ve Wong's Peppered Beef Flavor which is rather similar to this one but tastes a little better. My biggest beef (pun intended) is that the Unif-100 noodles just aren't very tasty. This will be a flaw that will affect them across all their product lines.

Unif-100 - Shallot Beef Flavor Noodles - 6.5/10

Sogoki Myun - Beef Flavor

The packaging of this reminded me very much of the Kimchi Ramen I had a few weeks ago, which was also made by Samyang Foods. I guess you could say they are part of the same family of large Korean instant noodles with relatively basic flavors.

These noodles turned out to be much spicier than I had anticipated. It's not quite up to the heat level of Shin Ramyun, but it definitely has more kick than you might expect from the packaging, which gives no hint that it might be spicy inside. I guess these Korean packages don't need to indicate spiciness, since pretty much all Korean instant noodles are spicy. The exception is the Chajung Myun varieties.


Couldn't really taste any beef flavor because the heat from the broth overwhelmed the taste. Overall, these were decent simple noodles that didn't do very much to distinguish themselves in my mind positively or negatively.

Sogoki Myun - Beef Flavor - 7.0/10

Ve Wong Noodle - Pork & Chicken Flavor

I am much more familiar with Ve Wong's Peppered Beef Flavor, but I couldn't resist picking this up when 99 Ranch Market had a Buy One, Get One Free sale.

As you might expect, the noodles in this pack are identical to those in the Peppered Beef Flavor. The Ve Wong noodles come with a good quantity of seaweed, cabbage, and carrot which add some nice variety and texture to the noodles.


I wonder what genius at Ve Wong decided to combine pork and chicken into the same flavor. Well, it kind of works, in that the soup is very savory and definitely meat-flavored, although the meat's identity is a little bit obscure. The noodles are pretty tasty and are pretty thin and soft, as is typical of Taiwanese instant noodles. Overall, these noodles are worth a try if you are into a savory meat flavor without any spiciness.

Ve Wong Noodle - Pork & Chicken Flavor - 6.5/10

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Mama Pad Thai - Stir Fried Flavor

These 70g miniscule noodles are so small they would only be suitable for feeding a small child or large pet. Despite this drawback, I went ahead and tried them, intrigued by the prospect of Pad Thai in a bag. As you might or might not expect, these are imported from Thailand.

Mama Pad Thai had a different cooking method than anything I've ever seen before. They want you to pour boiling water into the bowl with the noodles and then drain the noodles after 3 minutes and add the spices. In concept it is somewhat similar to Indomie Mi Goreng's cooking method.

As you can tell from the picture, these are rice noodles rather than the usual wheat noodles found in instant noodles. I added a fried egg since I am not a small child or large pet and require a little more substance to a meal.

The taste was quite good! A little bit similar to Mi Goreng, the Mama Pad Thai is very sweet and quite spicy. It was surprisingly sweet, but it also had a good savoriness to the noodles. There is a good taste of shallots if you enjoy that taste. If anything, the flavor was a little bit too strong for the amount of noodles they provided. My suggestion would be to increase the amount of noodles and tone down on the sweetness a little bit.

Mama Pad Thai - Stir Fried Flavor - 8.0/10

IndoMie - Mi Goreng Rasa Baso Sapi

I had previously lamented the fact that IndoMie's offerings are only 85g and are rather inadequate, especially with the increased effort of having to open up to 5 flavor packets. So I was happy to find the "Jumbo" version of one of IndoMie's Mi Goreng Rasa Baso Sapi, which comes in at 120g. The translation of the name is "Beef Fried Noodles".

IndoMie's noodles generally have cooking instructions slightly different than typical instant noodles. You are supposed to cook the noodles and dump all the seasoning packets onto a plate. Then, you drain the noodles and transfer them to the plate and mix everything together. It seems like a cool idea to have 5 flavoring packets (seasoning powder, seasoning oil, sweet soy sauce, chili powder, and fried onion), but it turns into a giant pain when it is actually time to open them all, especially since they are attached to each other.

Overall, the taste was quite similar to the IndoMie Mi Goreng that I tried before. The noodles are rather oily and the taste is dominated by the sweet soy sauce and the fried red onion. The flavor is quite good and unique and I'm glad that IndoMie has a reasonable size instead of their tiny 85g package.

IndoMie - Mi Goreng Rasa Baso Sapi - 8.5/10

Pojangmacha - U-Dong

Ever wonder what happens when you take the spiciness out of instant Korean noodles? That's what I set out to discover when I tried these noodles.

Upon opening the package, I was mildly displeased that the noodles didn't resemble Udon noodles at all and were instead the normal noodles that you find in Korean instant noodle packages. Udon noodles are supposed to be much thicker and chewier, but these were the same noodles you might find in Shin Ramyun. I was also shocked to discover what looked like a piece of burnt and melted plastic. I soon realized that it was just a dried piece of seaweed, though. I've never seen that before in instant noodles and was mildly intrigued by it.

Well, this turned out to be a rather bland and uninteresting ramen. There's little flavor to the broth besides salt and MSG. The seaweed turned out to be overly chewy and bad-tasting. Overall, it was an unremarkable experience which was saved only by the fact that I added chicken to liven things up a bit. I think the Korean instant noodle soup manufacturers should stick to what they know best: spicy spicy spicy!

Pojangmacha - U-Dong - 5.0/10

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President Unif-100 - Furong Shrimp Flavor Noodles

I'm not sure why I bought this pack of noodles except maybe just pure curiosity. Although I love shrimps, I'm not usually a fan of shrimp in ramen form...because quite frankly, shrimps (unlike chili peppers) do not translate well to a powdered soup flavoring.

The name of these noodles was "Furong Shrimp Flavor Noodles". I have no idea what Furong means and a Google search only turned up a Chinese cult-celebrity named Furong Jiejie who is apparently their equivalent William Hung. Maybe those two should get together! Supposedly, Furong refers to a flower that has been used to describe young beauty, but still I don't know how this relates to shrimp or noodles!


As you can see, I added some grilled chicken to the mix to add some non-harmful nutritional value to this meal. After tasting these noodles, I suspect that "Shrimp Flavor" is something that ramen manufacturers use to describe something that has no real flavor besides salt and a hint of fish paste. In other words, it didn't taste like shrimp at all. Then again, I'm not sure if I would have wanted to eat something that was pervasively shrimpy. I was pleasantly surprised by the high amount of seaweed and scallions, but that couldn't make up for the fact that this stuff didn't have a particularly nice flavor that certainly didn't match what it was advertised as.

In conclusion, don't vote for President Unif-100! Well, maybe the other flavors are good, I don't know...

President Unif-100 - Furong Shrimp Flavor Noodles - 3.0/10

Samyang Foods - Kimchi Ramen

I had a pretty good idea what this ramen was going to taste like before I opened it. That's because it falls into the category of Korean ramens which tend to share several two characteristics: they are spicy and contain a lot of noodles.

Interestingly, this ramen advertised itself as being Kimchi flavored, instead of just Hot & Spicy as usual. Luckily, I consider myself an expert on Kimchi, so I am fully qualified to determine whether or not the flavor is truly Kimchi, or if it is just sneaky false advertising. For those unfamiliar with Kimchi, it is a Korean side dish consisting of spicy fermented cabbage. Sounds kind of gross but it is actually quite good. Interesting to see how it would taste in ramen form.


Well, it turned out to fall a little short of my lofty expectations. It didn't really have the distinctive tang and bite of real Kimchi. Instead, it seemed just like every other Korean ramen that I have ever had: it was spicy and contained lots of noodles. That's just fine with me, since I happen to enjoy Korean noodles. Still a little disappointing that it didn't quite live up to the big Kimchi printed across the front!

Samyang Foods - Kimchi Ramen - 7.0/10

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Tung-I Ramen Noodle - Chinese Onion Flavor

I bought these noodles because I had a faint memory of enjoying them as a child. Chinese onion refers to fried red onions, which are a common ingredient in Chinese cooking and can be used in a similar way to garlic.

These noodles were very fragrant after I started cooking them. The flavoring basically consists of salt and fried red onion, so you better like the taste of these onions if you are going to be eating this ramen.


Overall, I quite liked these ramen, although my opinion of them has changed since my childhood. I wish they had a little more spice to them, either a pepper flavor or some spiciness. Now, I realize that I really should have added my Sriracha sauce to this to make it perfect, but the thought didn't occur to me at the time. I'll have to buy them again in order to do this!

Tung-I Ramen Noodle - Chinese Onion Flavor - 7.5/10

Paldo Korean Broad Noodle

Sometimes you open a package of ramen and you know it's going to be a winner. Other times you open a package of ramen and you know it's going to be a dud. And then, there are those rare surprises when you think it's a dud but it ends up being a winner.

Paldo Korean Broad Noodle is one of those rare surprises. It weighs in as the biggest ramen yet, 123 grams, but it's worth every bite.


The noodles come with a single flavoring packet, which looks like a slimy brown liquid roughly resembling soy sauce. The package did not identify a specific flavor like beef or seafood. So with low expectations, I squeezed out the liquid into the noodles and set it aside while I prepared the egg and vegetables, assuming it would be some generic weak soy sauce flavor.

Lo and behold, a few minutes later I turned back and the brown gunk had become a flavorful red broth with little hot oil bubbles around the edges!


Better yet, the taste of the ramen blew me away. While calling the noodles "broad" is a bit of an overstatement, they are slightly bigger than typical ramen noodles and have a nice heft and chewy texture. They also absorbed the aroma of the broth, which itself was slightly spicy, garlicky, and unique. The ingredient list identifies the unique taste as a "red pepper sauce," something not often found in instant ramen. The taste was intense but not overwhelming, spicy but not inedible (like certain other Korean ramens).

I usually don't drink most of the broth in ramen because of the sodium and preservatives. But this time, it was "good till the last drop!"

Six Fortune Instant Beef Noodle - Stay Away!

Six Fortune Instant Beef Noodle is a 120g Korean ramen that comes with two packets - a veggie packet and a seasoning packet. If you couldn't tell from the title of this post, this was one of the worst ramens I have ever eaten and one of the few I have actually regretted eating later.

The broth tasted extremely bland and nothing at all like beef. The veggie packet had scallion flakes and these weird spongy brown things, which I had no idea what they were but added nothing to the overall ramen experience. The noodle texture was too stiff, not chewy, and did not absorb what little flavor was in the soup. In summary, avoid eating this ramen!

Blue Ocean Japanese Restaurant

Blue Ocean Japanese Restaurant
9440 Main St
Fairfax, VA 22031
(703) 425-7555

This Ramen Lover has been in Virginia all week. Although the DC area has very few ramen restaurants, we found out that Blue Ocean has it! Their menu is mostly a traditional Japanese restaurant menu - sushi, sashimi, and rice dishes. They also had a wide variety of udon and soba noodles. There is only one type of ramen, and it was not described in the menu at all, so I was a bit hesitant about ordering it, but I wasn't about to pass up a chance at ramen!

The ramen arrived and I was immediately impressed with the presentation. It was essentially a shoyu (soy sauce) ramen with the thin yellow noodles, topped with a slice of roast pork, a fish cake, fresh scallions, half a boiled egg, nori, and fresh bamboo. The toppings were arranged artfully on top of the soup. The taste did not disappoint - the yellow noodles were the perfect texture to accompany the broth and were of a wonderful consistency, chewy and sleek. The broth was fragrant yet light. Overall, the combination of ingredients somehow melded together beautifully and the ramen was truly a delight to eat!

Paldo Korean Noodle - Chicken Flavor

Paldo Korean Noodle - Chicken Flavor is a 120g Korean ramen, shaped in a rectangle, that comes with two packets. One contains vegetables (green onion and dried thin tofu squares) and the other is a spice packet.

I did not really like this ramen. The broth flavor tasted pretty much like chicken broth - no special fragrances or tastiness. The noodles also did not soften as much as I would like and I'm not sure whether it absorbed much soup flavor, since the soup was so bland anyway. I would not recommend this ramen for eating again.

Su Tah Ramen Noodle Soup

I think I was initially drawn to this packet of ramen by the similiarity of its name to the popular Sudoku puzzles. But the similarities stop soon after. For one thing, Sudokus are popular number puzzles and Su Tah Ramen is a noodle soup.

These are a hefty 120g, much like other Korean noodles such as the popular Nong Shim line. No such luck in getting a circular block, though. The ramen was as square as a wheel in The Flintstones.


Upon eating the noodles, I was in for a shock. These were quite hot and spicy! Turns out the packaging had written in tiny print, "Rich Hot Flavor". I've highlighted it in the picture below so you can see just how hidden this was!

This ramen reminded me very much of Nong Shim, especially their Shin Ramyun. In a blind taste test, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference. I think the Shin Ramyun Hot & Spicy is still spicier though. Still, a comparison to Shin Ramyun is high praise and I was quite satisfied with these noodles.

Su Tah Ramen Noodle Soup - 8.0/10

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Sapporo Ramen - Clear Moyashi Flavor

Sapporo Ramen
Porter Exchange Building

Sapporo Ramen, located in the food court at the Porter Exchange Building, has three types of broths - soy sauce, miso, and clear. Since I have never had the clear (salty) flavor there before, I decided to try the clear moyashi over the weekend. The moyashi comes with ground park and heaps of Chinese vegetables, including bean sprouts and Chinese broccoli, for around $8.

Overall, I found the flavor to be fairly bland and in most respects inferior to the soy sauce and miso broths. One positive point to the clear flavor is that since it is so light, one is able to taste the flavors of pork and vegetable in the soup when you are drinking it, as opposed to an overwhelming soy sauce or miso taste. The noodles, meat, and vegetables were standard - I especially like the generous portions of vegetables that come with the moyashi selection. The serving size is large enough to comfortably feed two people for lunch. In summary, a nice ramen, but only if you are looking for a light subtle flavor.

Wei-Chuan Stewed Beef Noodle Soup with Vegetable

These noodles are in a different class than most of the noodles reviewed on this website, but I thought I'd include it anyway. Unlike most other instant noodles, no water needs to be added to this. Instead, it comes in a plastic bowl with beef and vegetables already included. The bowl needs to be kept frozen.

I am quite familiar with some of Wei-Chuan's products, especially their pickled cucumbers and dried noodles, and have been pleased with their quality in the past. This noodle bowl is very convenient because all you have to do is pop it in the microwave and it's soon ready to eat.

As you can tell by this picture, the noodle soup came out looking delicious. The meat was soft and surprisingly fatty. I would have expected leaner cuts, but the fatty cuts were definitely delicious. The noodles were quite good, definitely tastier and more substantial than the kind found in dried instand noodles.

All in all, I would be perfectly satisfied if I received this in a restaurant. Of course, I have had better, but this is by no means inferior to the typical beef noodle soup served in a decent Chinese restaurant. The portion size is quite small compared to what you would normally get in a restaurant. Also, the addition of some scallions would have been nice. However, I was pleasantly surprised by these noodles and would definitely get them again...if there weren't already a decent Chinese restaurant across the street!

Wei-Chuan Stewed Beef Noodle Soup with Vegetable - 9.0/10

Ai Men Tsu Noodle - Udon Chilli Beef Flavor

These noodles are the first instant noodles that I have ever had that aren't dried. They can be found in the refrigerated section of Asian grocery stores. This specific brand is imported from Taiwan.


Don't panic! That cloudy stuff on the top of the soup is from the egg that I added. Following the instructions, I added 500cc of water, which turned out to be way too much. So much so that it diluted the taste of the soup. Perhaps they were expecting more water to boil off, especially since the microwave instructions only call for 350cc of water.

Well, it was hard to figure out what this was supposed to taste like since everything was too dilute. The noodles were nicely thick and chewy, but didn't have much flavor since there wasn't much to absorb from the soup. Interestingly, the scallions were extremely potent, unlike the tasteless filler that they usually put in instant noodles.

Next time, I'll be sure to add only about 350cc of water when making this on the stove!

Ai Men Tsu Noodle - Udon Chilli Beef Flavor - 6.0/10

Nong Shim Beef Noodle Soup

Nong Shim Beef Noodle Soup is a 120 gram circular ramen with two packets - one with vegetable flakes and one with seasoning powder.





Most of the 120 gram ramens that I have eaten have been incredibly spicy and flavorful. So, it was hard not to be a little disappointed by the relative blandness and gentle flavors of this non-spicy ramen. The seasoning powder smelled delicious as the noodles were cooking, but I found the broth to be only so-so and the noodles just standard. The vegetable flakes, while promising in their abundance, did not really rehydrate in the thin soup and did not have much flavor either. The "beef" taste was pretty much nonexistent. All in all, a completely average ramen. I'm sticking to hot and spicy in the future!

Cafe Mao

A founding member of the Ramen Lover cult invited me to join after we had a ramen lunch in Cafe Mao on his recent visit to Dublin. This is my acceptance!

Cafe Mao

The Mill Pond Civic Square
Dundrum Town Centre
Dundrum
Dublin 14
Ireland

Cafe Mao is at the heart of Dublin's newest and trendiest shopping district- Dundrum Town centre. Its chic decor and airy atmosphere were certainly welcoming for a ramen novice like myself. The menu was straightforward. It included a chilli scale, from 1-4, to illustrate the spiciness of each dish and also indicated which dishes had a low fat content. I ordered the Chilli Chicken Ramen which had 3chillies and was advertised as low fat. The description read "chilli marinated breast of chicken on egg noodles with pokchoy and chilli herb broth." We enjoyed some Mao home brewed bottled beers, whilst waiting on our food, which even had a picture of Mao on the front! I tasted the broth first and loved it instantly. It was hearty, tasting of the veggies, chicken and chillies. The vegetables included red onions, red peppers, sliced chillies, bean sprouts and pokchoy. The chicken was laid on top of the dish, which Alvin informed me is not traditional but rather for presentation purposes only.

I encountered a minor problem with the chicken before I had to the chance to taste it. The entire fillet was sliced into only five pieces, which proved difficult to eat with chopsticks since each piece was easily three bites! When I finally managed to pick-up the first brick, it tasted great. It was juicy and moist on the inside and perfectly chilli sealed on the outside. On reaching the noodles we discovered that we had been deceived! I was not eating ramen noodles. After a consultative assessment with Alvin we concluded that there were in fact two types of noodles- Chow mein, disguising as ramen, on a bed of lo mein. In all honestly, had such an experienced Ramen Lover not been present, I never would have known! The noodles, despite their inaccuracy, were more than satisfying. In fact, Cafe Mao are free to fool me any time so long as it tastes this good! Nearing the end, the smack of the broth managed to get the better of me and I had to give up for fear of combustion. In all, a fine restaurant and a dish I would happily order a second time.

Mr. Kon Spicy Hot Pork Rib Flavor

As soon as I opened the flavoring packets, I knew that Mr. Kon was going to be a winner! My digital camera died, so no pictures, sorry. Mr. Kon is a 120 g ramen that comes with three packets - vegetable flakes, seasoning powder, and hot oil. The vegetable flakes are fairly low quality compared to other 120 g ramens of this type, but I was impressed by the flavorful aroma of the seasoning powder.

After cooking, I was pleased to find out that the ramen lived up to my high expectations. The noodles and broth were extremely flavorful and were actually both spicy and hot (as opposed to just hot). The spiciness reminded me mostly of peppercorns. And, there was actually a distinctive flavor separate from the spiciness and hotness that did taste similar to pork ribs! The noodles themselves were fairly good - not excessively chewy and they absorbed flavor well.

All in all, a terrific ramen that I will certainly buy again. My only suggestion for improvement is to increase the quantity and quality of the vegetable flakes.